Chapter 3

They were unsure why Queen Abbey was irritated today but there wasn't much they could do about it. Kohaku had given up and left her mother in her rooms. Oz took over the paper work that needed finished while the Generals watched over fighting while commenting on it. Raven was thrilled to have them here to a certain point. She wanted to learn their ways of fighting and took to asking Kunzite to duel. He accepted once asking Endyiom who accepted. Kohaku had been late on the venture to the dueling area held in the palace since she had a hard time getting her mother to talk. Akai had joined Oz through his paper trail, joining him in the decisions. Taking a seat next to Allen, Kohaku watched Raven move gracefully mastering the arts of being nimble with agility. Her sword was real this time with the royal gems covering it as she fought. Kunzite showed to be a strong opponent but not strong enough at the moment. Raven taunted him with ridicules to get him angry until he used all his energy up in anger, leaving a point open for her to give the winning point at his throat. She grinned and then walked away.

"It seems that your sister is very strong and well trained," said Kunzite, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a towel and started unbuttoning the top of his uniform only for Kohaku to blush and quickly excuse herself at once. Nephrite chuckled only for Allen to raise a brow to Bade.

"Yes, she is still innocent," said Bade, looking for a moment in the direction Kohaku had went. "And we would like to keep it that way."

Nephrite saw that as a challenge, and wouldn't back down even with Jedite pushing him back.

"Will someone be her champion then?" asked Nephrite only for Allen to move swiftly to his feet, looking at Nephrite grin for a moment.

"I mind you, you are not on Earth anymore General. Mind your manners," replied Allen, taking to defense. Bade clapped him on the shoulder to pull him back from making an ignorant choice.

"I was out of line, my apologizes," said Bade quickly. "You see, we have been hearing through the vines that whenever you Generals go, you cause disruptions in royal families especially with their daughters."

Zoicite took this chance to speak since he wasn't letting his ego take control of him.

"They must be referring to other generals since we are all honest men," he replied, giving a glare secretly to the other three men he worked with. Raven walked back in with Kohaku by her side smiling up at her.

"You looked absolutely beautiful today, your movements were graceful and so full of passion. If you do win the fighting this week, do you believe your troops will need their advice?" asked Kohaku. Raven laughed, she was starting to like this girl and it helped to boost her ego. "Could you teach me to move so elegantly?"

"You already move beautifully, princess," said Bade, giving Kohaku a wink only for a blush to quickly move over her complexion.

"I meant in battle," she said softly. Raven rose a brow, curious as to what she meant by that.

"How so? You will never see a battle," said Raven only for Kohaku to shake her head no. This interested her intensely. How was it that this fragile girl knew how to battle?

"Better to be prepared than not," replied Kohaku. Raven nodded in agreement but was still trying to figure out this mystery. How was it she knew all these things? She was going to have to find a way to get her to show what she knew.

"I challenge you," said Raven suddenly, only for soft innocent face to suddenly harden into that which meant war.

"Accepted. Give me five minutes," replied Kohaku and then disappeared. Allen couldn't believe what he was seeing. This girl was going to be fighting his sister? How was it she knew all these things? Was she supposed to? Was that really why she hadn't been let out of the palace was to train and keep her mind, body, and spirit as one in the old ways of fighting? That was the only thing he could think of. For the first few years his father taught him the old ways of how to master his body as one but it Allen who had to teach Raven since their father would not let her know the old ways. He forbade a woman from fighting but Raven did it anyway. Within five minutes, Kohaku was back in a custom outfit that must have been made for her small frame. The pants had been fitted, and the shirt looked to that of a child's due to her small form. On her back were two katana's sheathed. Raven was indeed surprised and so was everyone else. The innocence this girl had disappeared from their eyes as they saw her as a woman.

"Nice," said Raven, looking at her outfit and hair pulled up. Kohaku flashed a smile.

"I am better with quivers but this will do for hand-to-hand," she replied. They took their places in the ring and started the dance of battle. Kohaku pulled the the katana's from their sheaths as she danced gracefully like Raven, carefully watching each other. Raven lead the charge first to see if the girl could even handle her attacks and watched the girl use the double sword technique to push away her attack. At that, Raven caught on. There were very few in the world that used the double sword style since it was very hard to master protecting both sides at once along with balancing out muscle mass on both sides evenly since the body was only used to one dominant side. This girl had to been highly trained and in secret for her to have this great power. But, Kohaku lacked attacking. She was more of a waited that needed to be attacked to block rather than attacking and thrusting. This showed danger for her as she tried to attack and then had to do flips to get out of the way of Raven's sword. The men were enthralled with the fight, never before seeing two women match themselves in strength or speed.

Allen saw from the corner of his eye as Oz took a seat with a grim look, watching the women.

"What is it?" asked Allen, drawing Oz's attention from the fight for a moment.

"She's going to use the darkness to her advantage," said Oz softly, watching as Kohaku surprised Raven by slipping into the shadows and seeming to disappear. Now, Raven wanted to show her true power since the girl had show how she could disappear into the shadows. Raven seemed to disappear only for a fly to take place buzzing around, keeping from the shadows until Kohaku slowly appeared from it, curious as to what happened. The fly landed on the sword, morphing back and taking the swing. Luckily, Kohaku blocked and stood staring up at Raven with a smile.

"Nice morphing," she replied with a smile. Raven equally grinned and they both back away and bowed to each other. Turning to the gentlemen watching, the earth soldiers seemed very surprised since they had never heard of anyone having such great power as this. Were these the secret soldiers that Queen Serenity had warned them about? Ones that could morph into animals or move in the shadows? Prince Endyiom excused himself and while the generals seemed to back off. Kohaku's eyes stopped on Oz as she looked over his posture.

"What bad news do you bring?" asked Kohaku.

"It seems that Queen Serenity has requested the presence of you, Raven, and Akai immediately. The generals are to stay here and teach the winners while Prince Endyiom escorts you to the palace." Kohaku nodded and moved from the room. Allen wasn't sure what was going on but was neither happy about it either. This cut his time of getting to know his friend's sister but there wasn't much to be done to that. They would be leaving this evening and so he would plan what to do next.

`*`

Prince Endyiom moved onto the transporter with the princesses; after beaming he lead them through the palace to the royal chambers belonging to Queen Serenity herself. Excusing himself, he let the three women enter. Moving up the long red carpet towards the throne, they saw a woman sitting in glittering white gowns, long silvery spun in pulled into two buns on each side of her head with the excess trailing down to the floors around her. Her crisp blue eyes watched each of them as they bowed before her like the soldiers they were trained to be and awaited her commands.

"I have called you for private matters," spoke her crystalline voice. "I have word of dark matters brewing near the border of the universe by a Queen Beryl. It seems that Prince Endyiom has turned down her advances and a love interest has started with Princess Serenity and him. I want to know if that is true, to know where Beryl is at all times, and of any activity moving through the center core system. Kohaku, you will be leaving to earth with Prince Endyiom masked as his betrothed. Raven, you are to be shipped to a small moon on the edge of the universe where you will be keeping track of anything suspicious in the solar system. Akai, you will be in the heart of the moon palace monitoring those wishing to grant access to portals on the moon along with monitoring suspicious activity inside the palace. Please make haste, I will be expecting nightly check-ins."

The three women rose, gave bows, and moved from the room.